The Collared Collection (28 page)

‘It must be by far the biggest house in the street – you don’t have children, do you?’ she asked, blatantly nosy. Bernard had never mentioned being a grandfather.

‘Oh no, just a dog.’

She remembered the rat dog that was so reluctant to go ‘walkies’ with Robert, perhaps embarrassed by the silly pink bow in its hair – and was surprised Jasper hadn’t eaten the scrawny little mutt for breakfast during his overnighter at the Wyatt home.

‘I see. I’m afraid I can’t offer you a drink or anything, I don’t think any of the appliances work yet.’ She wondered what they wanted – as always finding small talk difficult and frustrating.

Ellie sliced in, ‘We mustn’t intrude, I thought I should come and say hello, that’s all.’

Robert broke his silence. ‘How are you, Callie?’

Number one in the loaded question charts. ‘Oh, I’m great thanks, but I’m afraid you’ll have to excuse us, as we have a lunch date. We were about to leave, when you knocked.’

After they’d gone, David turned to her and laughed, ‘Well, you did a grand job of throwing them out. Are you going to take me to lunch now?’

They followed in the wake of a waiter with a funny walk; Manuel from
Fawlty Towers
personified. He led them to a side table in the garden at the rear of the restaurant and motioned they should be seated. Only two other tables were occupied – it was still quite early for lunch, especially on a Sunday.

Callie settled into her wrought iron chair. ‘This is a great place, isn’t it? I like the rose trellises and pottery planter things.’

David looked up at the cloudy sky, wrinkling his nose. ‘As long as it doesn’t rain …’

She chuckled, causing her stomach to twinge uncomfortably. ‘We’re safe, I did my world-famous sun dance before we left your flat.’

He groaned, ‘Oh God, thunder and lightning are guaranteed, then.’

She slapped his hand lightly and he caught her fingers, holding on tightly to them. ‘I’ve missed you.’ He reached to kiss her softly on the cheek.

Unsure she was ready for full-on rapprochement, even though she’d missed their closeness terribly, she said, ‘Sorry … I know I’ve been an awful ratbag – I’m finding it very hard to cope with the convoluted mess my life has become.’

He smiled and she wanted so much to hug him. ‘I understand, really I do – and I want to help.’

‘Then catch Balaclava Man … it’s so frustrating when week after week passes and we are no further forward.’

‘I’m sorry; we have several major investigations on the go, apart from the murders of Dee, Giles, Ginny, and Sally.’

‘My, the world is a dangerous place.’

‘I’d have to agree with that, especially around you.’

She reminded him she’d spotted Susan Williams from the bus, when she was meant to be elsewhere, but omitted to mention the close call she and Elizabeth had had with the deer – which she had persuaded herself into believing could conceivably have been a case of bad luck, being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

‘That doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Perhaps she simply didn’t want to go on the picnic and gave the first excuse that popped into her head. Mike wasn’t there either, remember – nor were Ronan, Harry, and Simon Stirling.’

She considered what he’d said, ‘I know … it was rather a last-minute thing. It’s just that she looked so much like our man, dressed all in black. I admit it’s a crazy idea –’

‘She was in Paris when Ginny died.’

‘We only have her word for that – she could easily have taken a day trip on Eurostar, sent off her postcard and still been around to murder Ginny.’

He sighed. ‘What about when Sally was stabbed? You said yourself she was in the upstairs toilet when the doorbell went – it’s pretty difficult being in two places at once.’

‘I’ve thought about that too – there’s a fire escape at the rear of her house and she’s so fit, she could have run down it, stabbed Sally (for whatever reason) and run back up, pretending to emerge from the toilet, when Sally was at the front door. She wouldn’t even break into a sweat.’

He shook his head slowly. ‘You don’t really believe that, do you?’

Manuel brought their carafe of Valpolicella and two glasses, plus the menu and a dish of olives. That gave Callie time to decide whether to tell David about her slip-slide ride down the embankment at the pub, when Susan had so conveniently appeared from behind to ‘save’ her. It could easily have been her who did the shoving in the first place – intent on saving herself from harm, Callie hadn’t been able to turn around to identify her attacker.

Casually, she popped it into the conversation, as though it were something they’d previously discussed; though he looked a tad nonplussed, he seemed to accept it was an incident he had forgotten about. Callie accepted she’d never get to Heaven. Moving swiftly on she said, ‘I’ve got a spare key to her house, in case you’re interested in an unofficial search?’

‘Callie! You’ll get me fired. We should be able to confirm that Susan was in Paris when she claims … will that satisfy you?’

She took a sip of wine – it wasn’t bad. ‘I suppose it would, yes.’

‘Alright – but you have to promise me you won’t do any maverick detecting until I can get that organised?’

She grudgingly agreed, then studied the menu. Of course, she had her fingers crossed behind her back when she made the promise, so it didn’t count.

‘Anything you fancy?’ he asked.

Only you, she thought, ‘Lots, I can’t make up my mind.’

‘Oh, by the way – I have to admit I did Mike a grave injustice.’

She looked up, ‘How so?’

‘There is no other woman in his life … except his mum. She’s been having a lot of hospital tests lately and that’s why he’s been so distracted. Thankfully, it’s good news. She’ll be fine.’

Callie breathed a loud sigh of relief, not so much for Mike’s mum (though she wished the woman no harm) but because she was so glad that he was being faithful to Ginny in spirit. She knew that was being daft, but didn’t much care. ‘That’s good to hear,’ she said, ‘is it just the two of them? I know his dad’s dead.’

‘No, he has two sisters – both older and living long distance, so Mike has been doing all the running around with their mum.’

‘No wonder his behaviour was erratic … I remember having to go to endless appointments with my mum – I found it all horribly stressful. And there wasn’t such a happy outcome.’

David squeezed her hand, ‘Don’t be sad, Sally. Sorry! Callie.’

To say she bristled was putting it mildly.

‘OK, OK. I accept it was a slip of the tongue … it was, wasn’t it?’ She had to dredge up immense reserves of self-discipline, not to fly (any further) off the handle. Then she un-pursed her lips and tried to manoeuvre them into something resembling a smile – though it came out a shade sardonic. ‘It couldn’t have been a Freudian slip, I suppose? Did the lovely Ms Stephens merit a notch on your handcuffs?’ Self-discipline had never been one of her strong points.

‘No! It was a stupid mistake, that’s all … Sally … Callie. You’re not going to get all moody again now, are you? Just because I put someone else’s teeth in this morning …’

He looked like a little boy who’d had his lollipop privileges confiscated.

‘I suppose I’ll have to let you off, just this once.’

She had just begun to feel close to David again, only for him to blow it, big time. She tried to imagine him and Sally as an item … No way. As she sat in silence, pretending to study the menu again, she willed herself to get a grip and grow up. Poor guy, hadn’t she made him jump through enough fiery hoops lately? Especially suspecting – even for one ridiculous second – that he could be Balaclava Man. She thought a change of topic might be a good idea, to help them get back on track, ‘How’s your divorce coming along? I can claim the big prize in a couple of weeks, my decree absolute.’ Her voice came out sharper than she’d intended.

He looked up from his glass and grinned – perhaps relieved that she’d moved on from the subject of Sally, ‘That’s good. Simon hasn’t mentioned what’s happening with mine, only that now all the papers have been filed, we must wait our turn for the formality of having the nisi granted and then another six weeks for the absolute. After that, I’ll be young, free, and single again, or almost.’

‘I don’t know about young, but two out of three ain’t bad. Will Dr Death marry her new man, do you think?’

‘I’ve no idea – he’s married too.’

‘Jeez, talk about All Change.’

‘Policemen aren’t generally known for their long and happy marriages.’ He smirked again, this one of the apologetic variety. ‘But we’ll be different.’

‘Sorry?’

‘When we get married, we’ll stay married and live happily ever after.’

Deep breath … ‘I can’t even think about that, David, with some homicidal maniac still intent on getting rid of me. Or at least trying to taunt me to death …’

‘But we have an understanding? I was wondering, because you are still wearing Dominic’s wedding ring …’

She did an involuntary twiddle of the offending gold band, starting to feel panicky and wheezy, despite sitting outside with unlimited fresh air at her disposal. ‘Why … I don’t know … stop trying to pin me down, will you?’

Discreetly, he whispered, ‘I thought you were in love with me?’

She sighed. The buttock-clenching turn in the conversation was all her own fault and she wished she hadn’t brought up the subject of divorce. ‘I was … am … oh, I don’t know! Can we have this discussion another time? Pleeeease?’ If someone had told her a few weeks ago that she’d put a handsome, nearly-eligible man who wanted to marry her on hold, she’d have had hysterics. But a lot had happened during those few weeks, and Callie was a different person – more independent (well, most of the time) and – she hoped – less pathetically needy.

She fixed him with an exaggerated beam. ‘Let’s eat, shall we? I’ve heard the food here is exceptionally good.’

That night, she couldn’t get to sleep, even though she was exhausted through general lack of sleep over an extended period. Her mind insisted on rehashing the day she’d spent with David, over and over. Their lunch had given them both indigestion as a direct result of the topics discussed, rather than the food. They’d tried, without any success, to identify other Balaclava Man suspects – mission impossible without the basic knowledge of why Dee had been killed. Only from there would they be able to work out the connection to whoever had undertaken the murderous rampage.

Sally’s last words hadn’t been much help either. ‘Ben-eh’ could be interpreted in so many ways; Benedict, Ben someone, with a surname beginning with ‘E’ – plus, of course, the obvious Bennett, to name but a few. Or perhaps it wasn’t a name at all; benefit, benevolent … though why she would utter either of those with her dying breath eluded Callie.

She tossed and turned some more, then got up, padded barefoot into the lounge, and invited David into her bed … well, his bed.

Chapter Forty-four

On Monday morning, David dropped her off early at the office – he was touchingly excited about going to pick up his new car.

It seemed like only minutes later she received his call. ‘Callie! Good news – one of the team has made a significant breakthrough!’

A breakthrough in which direction wasn’t made clear, but she didn’t want to rain on his umbrella, ‘Great. Tell me!’

‘We’ve found the name Dee used previously.’

‘That’s excellent,’ at last they seemed to be getting somewhere, ‘what was it?’

There was a long pause; so long she thought they might have been disconnected. Then he answered quietly, ‘I’ll keep it for later, if you don’t mind – call me overly suspicious, but I don’t want to tell you over the phone. You never know who’s listening in.’

She didn’t manage to keep the disappointment, peppered with a dash of confusion, out of her voice, ‘Oh … alright then. Will you pick me up after work?’

‘You bet – we’re going to nail this bastard, I can feel it in my water.’

‘A little too much information.’

‘Oh, sorry … right, talking of water reminds me – it was canine urine in your bed.’

‘I don’t know whether that makes me feel better or worse … Are you sure you won’t tell me that name now?’

‘Best not. We can’t be too careful.’

‘Alright, spoilsport, see you later.’

‘Look forward to it.’

Bernard stopped by her desk. ‘You look happy, Callie. Good news for once?’

‘I think so, yes. I’ll know for sure later – David was being a bit secretive.’

He chuckled and carried on walking, weighed down by a large pile of files. ‘A man of mystery.’

What did he mean by that, she wondered – if anything? She told herself she had to stop reading sinister meanings into everything – she was becoming a proper little conspiracy theorist. On his return trip, she told Bernard that Eloise and Robert had dropped by – as she’d suspected, he had no idea that they lived in the same road. Why on earth would he?

Susan swung through the door. ‘Morning, all,’ she called breezily.

‘Hi, Susan, how was the wedding?’ she asked. A leading question, if ever there was one. Simon warbled a few off-key bars of ‘The Wedding March’.

‘Change of plan – Peter wasn’t well and didn’t feel up to the drive, so we cancelled. Anyone want to buy a toaster?’

Callie grinned and felt ridiculously relieved that Susan had passed the Litmus test. ‘Oh, that’s too bad, you should have come to Richmond with us. We had a lovely time, didn’t we, Bernard?’

He looked up from what he was doing, peering through the half-moon reading glasses that had slipped down the bridge of his nose again. ‘We did indeed, Callie. You missed a splendid picnic and a very good champagne, Susan – most decadent. Ginny would have approved wholeheartedly.’

Susan shrugged. ‘C’est la vie. I met a friend for dinner instead.’ She went to powder her nose.

Callie wasn’t in the mood for hunkering down to serious work and did the bare minimum, with frequent breaks for coffee. On her legal pad, she made another list of absolutely anyone who could be – however unlikely it might seem – Balaclava Man. She was simply reiterating what she and David had gone through over their pasta yesterday, but wanted to be clear in her own mind. Then, if they were left with anyone standing after elimination, they might be able to work out the elusive link to Dee’s murder, where it all started.